The Differential Effects of Teacher Approval and Disapproval in Junior and Infant Classrooms

Ten teachers in infant schools and 10 teachers in junior schools had their teaching recorded while their classes were being observed. Subsequently, an analysis was made of the teachers' use of approval and disapproval in relation to pupil on-task behaviour. For both types of school, there was a positive trend between teacher approval and pupil on-task behaviour. However, only the infant school trend was statistically significant. For both types of school, there was an almost zero correlation between teacher disapproval and pupil on-task behaviour. Scattergram analysis indicated a curvilinear relationship between teacher disapproval and pupil on-task behaviour in both infant and junior schools.     

影响幼儿教师非正式评价行为的因素分析

幼儿教师的非正式评价是幼儿园日常工作之一,幼儿教师每天都对幼儿进行各个方面的评价,非正式评价对幼儿的发展起着重要的作用。但教师的非正式评价还存在着如评价不公平,评价不恰当等问题。那么是什么影响幼儿教师的非正式评价行为成为本研究的焦点,研究表明教师的个性、刻板印象、评价情境等成为影响幼儿教师非正式评价行为的主要因素。     

The Digital Divide in Classrooms: Teacher Technology Comfort and Evaluations

A disconnect exists between students’ comfort with using technology for learning and teachers’ comfort in using technology for teaching. Students report the desire for more engaging technology-based assignments. Teachers cite multiple reasons for their hesitancy to use technology in their teaching. The current study investigates whether this disconnect has implications for students’ evaluations of their teachers. Using data from 101 high school students, researchers found that students’ perceptions of their teachers’ comfort with technology impacts their evaluations only when student affect for technology is high. Implications for how this might impact teacher evaluations and directions for future research are discussed.     

First-Grade Teacher Behaviors and Children's Prosocial Actions in Classrooms

Research Findings: This study examines whether specific teacher instructional practices in early education are associated with children's engagement in prosocial behavior. Teachers’ verbal encouragement of prosocial behavior and empathy, emotional warmth, positive behavior management, vocabulary instruction, and encouragement of expressive language were explored in relation to children's classroom prosocial behavior. We also examined whether increased prosociability was evident in the classrooms of teachers who both encouraged prosocial behavior and empathy and demonstrated emotional warmth. We observed 124 first-grade classrooms that included 2,098 children. Results indicated that teachers’ verbal encouragement of prosocial behavior and empathy was most strongly associated with classroom prosocial behavior. There was also a significant association between encouragement of expressive language and prosocial behavior. Emotional warmth, positive behavior management, vocabulary instruction, and the joint effect of teacher emotional warmth and encouragement of prosocial behavior and empathy was not associated with prosocial behavior. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that teachers’ more deliberate encouragement of prosocial and empathic behavior and their creation of a positive, interactive social environment may support students’ prosocial behavior. The implications of these findings are particularly important for young children learning to engage with others.     

Gender studies: some methodological and theoretical issues

In the first part of this paper, studies are reviewed which suggest that gender differences in science achievement can be explained entirely in terms of social factors, and which also suggest that these differences could be eliminated, or even reversed, by changing the social environment. For the studies examined, it is suggested that research workers may not have taken sufficient account of confounding variables in their work, and that the apparent changes in gender differential reported may be explained in terms of these confounding variables.

In the second part of the paper, studies are reviewed which seek explanation of gender differences in science achievement in terms of unequal treatment of boys and girls by science teachers in the classroom. It is concluded that the quality of the research work which has been undertaken is disappointing, and that the research evidence provided by these studies for the differential treatment of boys and girls by science teachers is far from convincing.

It is concluded that real gender differences in science achievement do exist, and that they cannot be explained fully in terms of the social environment. It is suggested that both biological and sociological theoretical perspectives on gender differences in science achievement are inadequate, and that further progress in understanding gender differences in science achievement will require a new theoretical synthesis. It is suggested that sociobiology may provide the required new theoretical synthesis by allowing for the recognition of both biological and environmental influences on science achievement.     

外语写作教学中有效的教师反馈

外语写作教学中教师反馈是教学过程中必不可少的环节,在写作教学中占有重要地位。根据国内外写作教学的相关研究成果,通过对有效教师反馈特征因素的研究,提出有效的教师反馈应当强调内容与形式并重、提倡间接反馈、肯定反馈,了解学习者的个体差异,并与同侪反馈相结合。     

Teacher Quality Indicators as Predictors of Instructional Assessment Practices in Science Classrooms in Secondary Schools in Barbados

This study investigated the self-reported instructional assessment practices of a selected sample of secondary school science teachers in Barbados. The study sought to determine if there were statistically significant differences in the instructional assessment practices of teachers based on their sex and teacher quality (teaching experience, professional qualification and teacher academic qualification). It also sought to determine the extent to which each of these four selected variables individually and jointly affected the teachers’ report of their instructional assessment practices. A sample of 55 science teachers from nine secondary schools in Barbados was randomly selected to participate in this study. Data was collected by means of a survey and was analyzed using the means and standard deviations of the instructional assessment practices scores and linear, multiple and binary logistic regression. The results of the study were such that the majority of the sample reported good overall instructional assessment practices while only a few participants reported moderate assessment practices. The instructional assessment practices in the area of student knowledge were mostly moderate as indicated by the sample. There were no statistically significant differences between or among the mean scores of the teachers’ reported instructional assessment practices based on sex ( t?=?0.10; df?=?53; p?=?0.992), teaching experience ( F[4,50]?=?1.766; p?=?0.150), the level of professional qualification (F[3,45]?=?0.2117; p?=?0.111) or the level of academic qualification (F[2,52]?=?0.504; p?=?0.607). The independent variables (teacher sex, teaching experience, teacher professional qualification or teacher academic qualification) were not significant predictors of the instructional assessment practices scores. However, teacher sex was a significant predictor of the teachers’ report of good instructional assessment practices. The study also found that the joint effect of the variables teacher sex, teaching experience, teacher professional qualification and teacher academic qualification was not significant in predicting the instructional assessment practices scores of the science teachers. However, the joint effect of these variables was statistically significant (X ²?=?18.482; df?=?10; p?=?0.047) in predicting the teachers’ reported use of good instructional assessment practices. The best predictor of teachers’ report of good instructional assessment practices, though not statistically significant, was the diploma in education professional qualification.     

Promoting Inclusive Communities in Diverse Classrooms: Teacher Attunement and Social Dynamics Management

Classroom social integration with peers is vital to students’ school success, and all students can benefit from contact with peers who are different in various ways. Teachers are uniquely positioned to support the social adaptation of diverse learners but require an understanding of classroom dynamics. Moreover, teachers need strategies that help to leverage positive peer dynamics and that promote an engaged classroom climate for all students. Reflecting a person-in-context perspective, this review discusses the peer relations and social adjustment of students, particularly in classrooms with a diverse range of student characteristics and instructional needs, and proposes that teachers’ use of social dynamics management strategies can foster classroom communities that support the involvement and adjustment of all students.     

大学英语课堂教师话语的调查与分析

大学英语课堂教师话语不仅是组织课堂和操纵教学的工具,也是课堂语言学习的内容和语言应用的范例。鉴于此,大学英语课堂教师话语会影响甚至决定课堂教学的成败。该研究采用自然调查法,通过课堂观察、录音和问卷调查,就五位大学英语教师课堂话语的样本从教师话语的数量、母语的使用量、教师提问、交互调整的方式及教师对学生的反馈5个方面进行剖析,从而全面、详细地描述和分析大学英语课堂教师话语的特点,以期发现问题,对提升大学英语课堂教师话语的质与量提出建议。     

Child Behavior Problems,Teacher Executive Functions,and Teacher Stress in Head Start Classrooms

Research Findings: The current article explores the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of child behavior problems and preschool teacher job stress, as well as the possibility that teachers’ executive functions moderate this relationship. Data came from 69 preschool teachers in 31 early childhood classrooms in 4 Head Start centers and were collected using Web-based surveys and Web-based direct assessment tasks. Multilevel models revealed that higher levels of teachers’ perceptions of child behavior problems were associated with higher levels of teacher job stress and that higher teacher executive function skills were related to lower job stress. However, findings did not yield evidence for teacher executive functions as a statistical moderator. Practice or Policy: Many early childhood teachers do not receive sufficient training for handling children's challenging behaviors. Child behavior problems increase a teacher's workload and consequently may contribute to feelings of stress. However, teachers’ executive function abilities may enable them to use effective, cognitive-based behavior management and instructional strategies during interactions with students, which may reduce stress. Providing teachers with training on managing challenging behaviors and enhancing executive functions may reduce their stress and facilitate their use of effective classroom practices, which is important for children's school readiness skills and teachers’ health.     

Investigating Forms of Children's Writing in Grade 7 Mathematics Classrooms

Recent changes in mathematics curricula, both in South Africa and elsewhere, have begun to change the overwhelmingly symbolic nature of mathematics in schools (in the sense of use of mathematical symbolism), promoting more use of the oral and written language. Engaging students in `Writing-to-Learn' activities in mathematics classrooms has been identified and claimed by various mathematics education researchers as having a positive impact on the learning of mathematics. In this paper, I report on a piece of research, which is part of a broader study, on forms of mathematical writing and written texts produced by learners in grade 7 (12–13-year-olds) classes in six junior high schools in KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa.     

Naturalistic case studies exploring social-cognitive mechanisms,and some methodological issues in research on problems of teachers

The argument is advanced that research could be more effective for use by teachers and simultaneously more scientific, in the sense that it would emulate the historical process of the development of quantitative science, if it were (1) of the form referred to as naturalistic case studies and (2) oriented toward discovering the cognitive and social interaction mechanisms that underlie the learning processes in classrooms. The limitations of individual case studies of children with difficulties learning in school are examined and some practical approaches to interventionist case studies done in classrooms are considered. It is proposed that the standard view of quantitative research in the social sciences derives from the physics curriculum rather than from the history of physics. This view also mistakenly places higher priority on finding predictive linear relationships among measurements rather than qualitative understanding of mechanisms, which could guide researchers toward useful quantitative research. The researcher who has not yet penetrated the world of the individuals being studies is in no firm position to begin developing predictions, explanations, and theories about that world.     

大学英语课堂教师提问特征调查研究

本研究采用课堂录音和课后访谈的方法,对六位大学英语教师在不同课型上的提问情况进行调查,进而从教师提问的类型及分布、教师提问的语言特征、教师提问时的互动方式等方面加以分析。研究结果表明,大学英语课堂教学仍存在某些问题与不足,不利于培养学生的英语综合应用能力。对此,笔者提出了相应的改进措施。